Monday 30 September 2013

Unlike the weather BHM is far from dull

On Black Hole Marsh this afternoon there were a 2 ruff, 1 spotted redshank, 1 lone ring plover, 3 green sandpipers, 1 kestrel, 3 little grebes, 5 black tailed godwits, 5 little egrets and a substantial number of teal.   Several vocal water rails can be heard near the tower hide this week.  Although the light was atrocious it did not stop me taking a few photos as you can see.

Kestrel



Spotted redshank



Ruff

Teal
 Finally some distant views of last weeks bittern from the tower hide











Wednesday 18 September 2013

Spotted crake and the cuckoo

I know this cuckoo has been around for a while now but it still deserves a few photos.  Spending most of its time near the tram line it poses beautifully every now and again.  



The spotted crake found by Ian Hunt from the local ringing group (who was kind enough to let people know) proved to be a very pretty bird and far better than last years distant blob on the river.  This one was very obliging and we did not have to wait long before it showed itself well.






and lastly a few more of the cuckoo




Wednesday 4 September 2013

Another osprey

It was great to see another osprey this afternoon on the Axe even though it did not linger long






Unfortunately this is a back view but it does show it was an unringed bird


Also plenty of kingfisher sightings throughout the wetlands



Sunday 1 September 2013

Still amazing

Black Hole Marsh continues to hold a wonderful number of waders though a
sparrowhawk yesterday morning was making life difficult for them all before eventually flying off still hungry.



The stunning curlew sandpipers remain (still numbering 17!)



and a turnstone continues to find food under and around the walkway to the island hide




Lots of ring plovers




and dunlin are still close by the hide




including this very dark coloured one


and there were 2 little ring plovers close by too


This was a very vocal common sandpiper


and this beautiful black tailed godwit was asking to be photographed


A few yellow wagtails have been passing through though rather quickly


and finally cannot resist a few more curlew sandpipers